Blanco Cantina

If Tex-Mex cooking, complemented by tequila and cervezas make your mouth water, Blanco on the 17th Avenue Southwest shopping and dining strip is the place to visit. Inspired by the Tex-Mex food from cities in Texas, Southern California and Western Mexico, co-owner Cliff Harvey and his partners wanted to translate the essence of their cuisine-travel experiences to Calgary. The owners of Añejo Restaurant, they had dreamed of opening a laid-back, "younger brother" of the successful contemporary Mexican restaurant.

“Our Mexico is more like Sayulita, Guadalajara or Tlaquepaque, not resort Mexico,” says Cliff. “We wanted our food to reflect that.  We do street-style tacos – sourcing locally made tortilla shells and chips, and preparing all the meats and marinades in house.” Blanco’s tacos are indeed like those found in Mexico. Soft corn tortillas, they're served with pork, chicken or beef. And, the spacious, rustic cantina is appropriately decked out with wood-plank walls, neon signs and sugar skulls.

The menu’s “big ass burritos” are one-pound behemoths modelled after the southern Mexican-American variety. The quesadillas and fajitas, as well, follow authentic formulas rather than popularized versions.

So determined were they to get it right, the Blanco chefs were put on reconnaissance duty in Texas and Mexico. “We sent our guys to Jalisco Mexico and Houston Texas to talk to the chefs, find out what they were doing, and get the authenticity of the place,” says Cliff.

On the establishment's outdoor patio, which overlooks the avenue, people sun themselves as they dig into big ass burritos and plates of housemade nachos con mucho gusto.